Christina Tosi refers to this leftover roast chicken soup as “overnight chicken soup” because she dumps a chicken carcass in a pot and then leaves the flame “a-burnin’ overnight.” As she explains, “the depth is insane when you roll slow and low, challenging reason and basic safety, leaving a whole carcass, with plenty of meat on it, to simmer overnight.” What happens when you leave it that long is you coax out “every last slurp of flavor into the soup,” says Tosi. Just like grandma knew how to do. “The meat remains incredibly tender, it’s much easier to pick every last shred, and you don’t have to deal with any prep work post-dinner. Just cover the bird with water and say ‘night, night.'” adds Tosi. Fittingly, this soup tastes like something grandma would make.–Renee Schettler Rossi

Directions

1. To make the Leftover Roast Chicken Soup in your slow cooker, see the Slow Cooker Variation below.

To make the Leftover Roast Chicken Soup on your stovetop, combine the chicken carcass and any residual meat and desired aromatics in a large stock pot (5- to 8-quart capacity) and fill the pot with water so the chicken is fully submerged. Set over the lowest of low heat, lid that puppy 3/4 of the way so the water can evaporate a little bit but not too much, and leave it for at least 6 hours, skimming any scum that accumulates on the surface of the stock but leaving any puddles of fat. [Editor’s Note: Christina Tosi leaves the stock simmering overnight. You may or may not wish to do the same. We guess it depends on your level of risk taking and whether your homeowner’s insurance is up to date.]

2. Remove the pot from the heat. Your kitchen smells amazing, right? Strain the liquid from the chicken into another large pot and let the solids rest in the strainer. Walk away for a little while. Brush your teeth. Brush your hair. The chicken should be cool enough to handle at this point.

3. Using your hands, separate the chicken meat from the bones, aromatics, and gelatin. Don’t be grossed out—put your best farm girl face on, roll up your sleeves, and get to work. This should yield 2 to 3 cups light and dark meat, depending on how much chicken you ate the night before. Toss the bones and stuff in the trash. Add the shredded chicken to the pot with the broth. (You can cover and refrigerate the soup until dinnertime.)

4. Bring the soup to a gentle simmer. If you want, you can clean out your fridge by throwing in a handful of baby carrots, chopped onion, Brussels sprouts, spinach, or whatever else you’ve got languishing in your vegetable bin. It’ll taste awesome. Simmer until the soup is warmed through and any vegetables are tender.

5. Stir in the soy sauce, apple cider, and black pepper to taste and ladle into bowls.

Leftover Roast Chicken Soup Variations

Slow Cooker Leftover Roast Chicken Soup

Toss your roast chicken carcass and desired aromatics (that means vegetables or herbs) in your slow cooker and cook on slow for 8 hours or overnight. (Trust us, the only thing better than the smell of coffee in the morning is the aroma of chicken soup.) Continue with step 3 in the instructions above. Easy just got even easier.

Leftover Roast Chicken Soup with Carbs

If you like rice or pasta, cook some up in a separate pot, stealing some of the broth from the soup pot to use as your cooking liquid.

Egg Drop Soup With Leftover Roast Chicken

Lightly whisk 3 eggs to combine. Stir the finished soup in a clockwise direction and, while still stirring, pour in the eggs in a slow, steady stream. Continue to stir for 1 to 2 minutes, until egg ribbons form. Ladle into bowls and garnish with thinly sliced scallions if you’ve got ’em.

Recipe Testers Reviews

I think this leftover roast chicken soup kicks some serious butt! For reasons that will soon become obvious, the hands-on time took no more time than it takes to cut fresh basil, rosemary, and lemon thyme from my garden, chop some carrots and onions, and, of course, toss it all in the pot. I shaved a few hours off the process by tooling into my local Publix and scooping up one of their gorgeous rotisserie chickens. (Laziness and ingenuity go hand in hand.) I simmered the concoction in an 8-quart Le Creuset for about 8 hours. My perfectly cautious wife was having no part of simmering anything overnight while we slept, so like a good soldier, I put the soup on early in the morning. When I first began to eat the soup, I was disappointed, but then like magic I remembered the soy sauce and apple juice. Now my soup tasted just like something grandma made. Wonderful! This easy chicken soup improved daily, as soups are wont to do.

I'm always looking for slow cooker recipes. This leftover roast chicken soup might seem obvious, but I think it's nice to have a reminder. You can use all parts of your chicken, and you can do it right after roasting a chicken. So rather than storing the bones in the freezer to make stock at a later date, it seems logical to just throw it into the slow cooker while you're cleaning up. I usually have carrots in the fridge, but I also keep veggie peels to use in stock. For this chicken soup, I used ends from onions I'd stashed in the the freezer and 1 carrot. I left it in the crockpot overnight. I only got 4 cups soup, but I started with a small chicken. I served the chicken soup for dinner 2 nights later. I added some of the leftover shredded chicken and the add-ins listed in the recipe. I also made some brown rice and some sautéed spinach and mushrooms that everyone put in their bowls and then ladled the soup over the top. A great way to have chicken leftovers without being boring.

Comments

In the same vein as the above left over chicken, I love to buy the roasted chickens from Costco for $5 and make multiple meals. I always bring home the chicken and strip most of the meat for many other uses, and then take the skin and bones and juices and put them in a pan with additional chicken stock, the standard onion, celery and carrots and let the steep for hours. Then strain all solids and put the remaining stock in the refrigerator over night and the following day, skim the fats off of the top to use elsewhere and you have a luscious stock of consequence to use in a soup or sauce.

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